Topic: Is a soundcard necessary in a computer build?

[travelinbeat]

Hey folks-- I'm in the process of putting together a computer (desktop).  I've already purchased and assembled most of the key components, but I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on whether or not a dedicated soundcard would be a worthwhile investment.  Right now I will be running sound off of the integrated drivers, but I'm wondering if in the world of audio processing, whether having a dedicated soundcard would expedite processing or provide more accurate reproduction of music (and by "more accurate reproduction of music" I'm looking for something very noticeable and worth the money, not some arbitrary abstraction that no human ear can distinguish).  If you guys think that a soundcard would be worth the extra money, please send me some links of recommendations!

Thanks guys

[OOK]

I  recently within the last 6 months purchased a new computer and went and upgraded many aspects of the computer.  Initially I was using the intergrated soundcard supplied by the computer.  I had some latency issues with it that I didn't like.  I also experienced some noise issues.   I ended up spending about 150$ of a card from E-Mu.  The card came with balanced outs.  I love it...it sounds incredible it spec's great and it has the added benefit of being balanced....  YMMV  But I would spend the extra for a good soundcard and monitors your recordings will thank you and you will be glad you did it.     OOK

[bhadella]

Can you provide us with more info on how you are going to use the soundcard?  Are you using headphones, speakers or connecting to a dac/amp?   I personally think pcs are very noisy (ie. introduce noise to cabling connected to them) so I prefer an external soundcard/dac/amp to the a intergrated "line out/headphone out" connection.

My signal path is:   M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Soundcard > (via coax digital cable) iBasso D10 Cobra dac/headphone amp > Grado SR60i headphones.   Noise floor is very low and lots of gain available from the iBasso. 

[travelinbeat]

I wouldn't say that I use my computer audio for much other than processing recordings.  I do have some relatively cheap speakers that I'll use for normal audio (like watching a movie or something), but generally for processing I plug in my Shure earbuds and work EQ to those.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

What is the model of motherboard you are using? (assuming that you already have it since you said: "I've already purchased and assembled most of the key components").

At this point it seems that most decent motherboards have pretty good on-board sound. Not as good as a $150 soundcard, but certainly usable for what you want to do.

[travelinbeat]

I have an MSI Z68a-g43 motherboard-- can't recall whether it's B3 or G3, but I'm not certain if that distinction is relevant to what we're looking at-- if it is I can take have friend who has it take a look:

http://www.msi.com/service/search/?kw=Z68a-g43&type=product

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

From what I can tell both of those boards have entry level sound built in (sound wise they are the same).

You certainly can get better sound, but obviously you need a nice set of speakers or cans to go with that.

IMO, Shure earbuds don't cut it. They are nice, but I much prefer a real set of full size headphones.

Depending on what your budget is, it may or may not be worth upgrading.

[travelinbeat]

Thanks for taking a look--

So what would recommend on a budget in terms of card and cans?  I'm certainly not in a position to drop obscene amounts of money right now, but I could be persuaded to shell out a couple of bills at some point for better sound. 

[rastasean]

There are quite a few recommendations in the playback section.

I'm about to be editing a recent recording and I'll use my audio technica m50s.

[12milluz]

I second the M50s. I absolutely love them.

For me, I think that the headphones are going to have a greater impact than the sound card. I would rather use a noisy card with great headphones than headphones that suck with an amazing sound card. I'd get the cans now, then when you can gather some more money up, upgrade the sound card.

[Fried Chicken Boy]

I second the M50s. I absolutely love them.

For me, I think that the headphones are going to have a greater impact than the sound card. I would rather use a noisy card with great headphones than headphones that suck with an amazing sound card. I'd get the cans now, then when you can gather some more money up, upgrade the sound card.

+3.  The ATH-M50's are great headphones and don't cost a fortune.  For your computer build, it's also the best bang for the buck in terms of upgrading a piece of your playback chain.

[Church-Audio]

Hey folks-- I'm in the process of putting together a computer (desktop).  I've already purchased and assembled most of the key components, but I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on whether or not a dedicated soundcard would be a worthwhile investment.  Right now I will be running sound off of the integrated drivers, but I'm wondering if in the world of audio processing, whether having a dedicated soundcard would expedite processing or provide more accurate reproduction of music (and by "more accurate reproduction of music" I'm looking for something very noticeable and worth the money, not some arbitrary abstraction that no human ear can distinguish).  If you guys think that a soundcard would be worth the extra money, please send me some links of recommendations!

Thanks guys

I personally like the M-Audio Audiophile 192k it is a great card with very low noise specs. And to my ears sounds great. I also like the EMU 1212M is also a great card both are standard PCI only. The emu is a pain in the ass to configure if you have never used a digital mixer before but if you know you way around a mixer its pretty straight forward.

[adrianf74]

Honestly, it all depends on what you're doing.  In my case, my PC is hooked up to my home theater receiver via an AMD Radeon 6450 card using HDMI.  I can bitstream 24/192 on this without issue and can playback SACD rips, DVD-Audio rips as well as BluRay rips with TrueHD or DTS-HD MA streams.  I can hear a little hiss when no audio is present but as soon as I start playing something, that hiss is gone.  I can live with this since the most I do with my recordings is some minor EQ-ing and limiting (and I almost always use headphones to get me to where I want to be and then use the speakers as a "second guess." 

If you don't require something heavy duty and are running your audio to a receiver directly via HDMI, I'd say "don't bother."  I used to use integrated Intel HD Audio on my i3-540 but got annoyed with the 24fps issue on video playback so I bought the cheap videocard.  I'd almost want to say, in your case, that you should just save your money.

[JD]

I personally like the M-Audio Audiophile 192k it is a great card with very low noise specs. And to my ears sounds great. I also like the EMU 1212M is also a great card both are standard PCI only. The emu is a pain in the ass to configure if you have never used a digital mixer before but if you know you way around a mixer its pretty straight forward.

FYI, Creative Labs (EMU) now makes a PCIe version of this card.I've been running one for a few months now, great sounding card!

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-70EM898206000-1212M-Pci-Express/dp/B002VDMUQ6